May I Take Your Order, Please?
by TheSleepyNinja15
Summary: Lelouch is a man of organized planning which includes a systematic plan for his love life. But when he gets subjected to a blind date just to appease his family, will spontaneity finally break his wall of established strategies and let him take risk for the unknown? Oneshot. AU


Of all the things that are on Lelouch's unbelievably long list of 'Things Not To Do', this is the one item that he decided to break. In his defense, his surrender was a product of his mother's constant nagging to find a warm, loving wife, his father's endless request during family dinners to have grandchildren as long as he is strong enough to play with them, and Euphy always hinting that it would be lovely that her and Suzaku's twins grow along with cousins. He tried to explain to them that finding a wife is not as easy as finding the aisle of noodles in the grocery. There are specific process, specific feelings required to determine if a woman suits his taste. And that is just during the pre-dating phase! Imagine how long it would need for him to get past through the 'Getting To Know Each Other' stage what with his meticulous set of qualifications. Then there's the Dating Stage which in his standards should be at least three years. He believes that such length is needed to know if he and his partner compliments each other thoroughly because, God knows, Lelouch doesn't need anymore drama in his already hectic lifestyle. The proposal, the pre-wedding preparations, the wedding, then the after-wedding.

Two years, he told them. If he ever gets married, he wants to have children two years after the marriage. So taking all of these into consideration, if he happens to find a potential partner right now, his cousin's twins would be around seven years old by then. Apologies, Euphy, Suzaku, you have to wait seven more years… hypothetically.

Of course, when he explained this during an outdoor lunch with the whole extended family, all he received were scoffs, snorts, and suppressed laughter from his loyal relatives. He had glared at his best friend when he saw him covering his mouth to hide his mirth. Even the ever-poised Cornelia rolled her eyes at the end of his comprehensive explanation.

"I thought you're gonna pull out a powerpoint presentation," she had said. "That is actually quite impressive if you are trying to sell us your product, but unfortunately that's not the case. You only proved to us how old-fashioned, boring, and pathetic you are, little couz."

"And why aren't you still married with Guilford after ten years of being together?" he retorts.

He wouldn't have crossed an item in his checklist, could have endured his family's pestering for a little much longer, if not for his favorite little sister dropping the final ammunition out of nowhere.

So here he is, inside a Japanese restaurant, gruelingly waiting for his blind date to come. Five minutes. She has been late for five minutes and in Lelouch's clock, it's the same as being late for an hour.

He can't believe that he agreed to this but this is Nunnally's request and Nunnally has been his princess for his entire life. He can't say no to the princess especially when she used those large, begging purple eyes of hers against him. Plus, she promised him that one blind date could give him a break from their parents. At least in their eyes, he had tried. That would appease them for a rather short time. But appease them, it will.

He checks his watch once again. Seven minutes. She's been seven minutes late and he arrived in the place thirty minutes ahead of the scheduled time. So he has been looking like an idiot for a total of thirty-seven minutes. Tapping his heels against the floor, he contemplates of calling Nunnally to cancel the date. But that will only disappoint her.

To entertain himself, he retrieves his little notebook from his coat's pocket and reviews his notes. All he knew about the girl is she's one of Nunnally's friends who he never met. A med student abroad and has the free time to come back to the country to reunite with her clique.

"Are you ready to make your order, sir?" a woman's voice asks above him.

Without looking up, he shakes his head and answers, "I'll just call for you when I'm ready."

He hears the waitress walk away as he scans his questionnaire. A total of twenty compatibility questions are written on the paper and he requires at least fifteen correct answers to declare the date as a success.

Number 1. What is your life principle?

Nice start, if one would ask him. Short but straight to the point.

Number 2. What is your motto?

Number 3. What do you do during your free time?

Number 4. Which do you prefer, reading informative books or watching the news?

"May I take your order, sir?"

"Not yet."

He hears a soft petulant huff from the waitress but pays no mind as he is too busy erasing question number ten and replacing it anew. Thank God, he brought a pen.

Checking his watch for the nth time, he decides that a thirty-minute grace period will be his limit. At thirty minute and one second, he's out of the resto. He will go straight to the library and grab the latest edition of the National Geographic magazine to immerse himself with.

He gets his phone and finds that not even a text message from Nunnally is there. He is starting to get annoyed. He doesn't like not knowing things, especially if such thing affects the way he spends his time.

"What is your order, sir?"

He starts composing a message for his sister. "I said I will call you when I am ready," he responds impatiently.

He is replied by an equally irritated answer. "I understand that. But you've been sitting here for almost an hour now, _sir_, without ordering anything and there are customers outside waiting for a table."

"Well, I am a customer, too, aren't I?"

"Not if you don't order."

Without glancing up, he says, "Is this how you treat your customers? I want to talk to your manager."

And he presses 'Send'. He throws his phone on the table, the poor device sliding into the middle of the furniture. Crossing his arms infront of him, he wills for the screen to light up. It doesn't. Instead, what, or rather, who arrive are a pair of women in Japanese attires – one is an Asian with short dark brown hair wearing a blue floral kimono, and the other, the other…

For a moment, Lelouch is at a loss for words for he had never encountered a woman as lovely as her. Not in his five years of being a prestigious university's professor and that is saying something.

But the lovely woman with hair of rich fields is glaring at him with her sunflower eyes.

"Good day, sir. My name is Sayoko Shinozaki, the manager of this restaurant. How may I help you?"

His gaze goes back and forth the ladies, realizing that the one he's admiring is the waitress attending to him. Clearing his throat, he tries to look as enigmatic as he can. "Miss…"

"C.C.," the green-haired lady supplies.

"Well, Miss C.C. has been treating me like a lesser customer when I would be paying rightly after I ordered."

The manager bows her head in apology. "I'm sorry for the inconvenience we have caused you. If we could do anything to make it up to you…"

"I was just being considerate to the other customers," C.C. whispers. Her manager quickly grabs her arm and pulls it down causing C.C. to bow as well.

"We are sorry," Miss Shinozaki repeats.

"Hmm. I hope that this won't happen again to any of your customers. To make up for it, may I borrow Miss C.C. for a little while?"

He surprised them, he notes. Miss Shinozaki glances at the waitress hesitantly before looking back at him. "May I know for what reason, sir?"

"Nothing illegal, I assure you. I just need someone to practice my test with which," he looks pointedly at Miss C.C., "I was reviewing a while ago. She just needed to accompany me until the stranger who is supposed to meet me here finally arrives."

"C.C. can do that."

"But Sayoko, we already don't have enough staff and it's the peak hours."

"I see, thank you. Miss C.C." Lelouch gestures towards the seat across him and defeated, the waitress sits as a deep sigh escapes from her.

As soon as the manager left, Lelouch begins barraging his unexpected companion with the questions he's been practicing earlier.

"What is your life principle?"

"Excuse me?"

"What is your life principle, Miss C.C.?" he repeats.

"Just go with the flow of life."

He jots her answer down on the notebook. "And why is that?"

"Because whatever happens is inevitable, has its own reason, be it good or bad."

_Scribble, scribble, scribble, then an 'x' over the number 1._

Then below the question, he writes his own answer.

_Change your destiny, don't settle on what fate handed to you but hold your life tightly on your palms._

"Okay. What is your motto in life?"

"'If I can do it tomorrow, why should I do it today?'"

This makes his eyebrows furrow in what he could only conclude as disbelief. "Isn't that basically procrastination?"

Placing her elbows on the table and putting her chin on her palms, the waitress bestows him a smirk.  
"Actually, I call it 'time management'."

"'Time management'?" he repeats. "How can you call it 'time management' when you are wasting your time?"

"Who says that I'll be wasting my time? Oh my, putting those things that I can do tomorrow aside will allow me to prioritize the things that needed urgent attention. In that way, unnecessary stress and cramming will be avoided, at the same time, I'll be able to accomplish my duties on time." He doesn't like the mocking look on her golden eyes, but he admits that she offers a valid point.

He puts an 'x' over the number 2.

Lelouch clears his throat before reading the next question. "What do you do during your free time?"

"Eat pizza."

He waits for her to elaborate.

He waits.

And waits.

He knows he is staring but he still waits for her explanation.

And waits a little more.

But no explanation came.

"That's it?"

This time, the woman huffs as she crosses her arms. "What do you mean by 'That's it'? You clearly don't know the bliss that only indulging yourself with a deliciously hot cheesy pizza can give. I see that you live such a lonely life, mister."

He shakes his head. "Don't you have any other hobbies?"

"Well, let's see. I like watching TV, lie around and sleep all day, eat out… Hmm, I can tolerate reading some adventure and mystery novels, too."

A big 'X' for number 3.

"Which do you prefer, reading informative books or watching the news?" he sighs. So far, her answers made him exasperated. Her being too passive is making him feel tired.

"None."

"But you said you like watching TV?"

"I like watching series and comedies," she deadpans as if he should have known what she meant from the very beginning.

This is ridiculous! They are only on the fourth question and not even one item is checked on his list. If she was his blind date, he would have already called this a failure – an unfortunate case of extreme incompatibility. He's aware that there are still more questions left and the table could still turn but just by scanning what he has written so far and matching them with the pretty face sitting across him, his head starts to hurt.

"What is this for anyway?" Miss C.C. asks, her finger gesturing between the two of them. He tells her his situation.

"A blind date?" Her eyes widen in mirthful surprise as she finds the scenario amusing. "And you prepared these questions to ask your _missing _date?"

"She's not missing, she's just late," he mumbles in annoyance. "And is there something wrong with my questionnaire?"

"No, it's actually cute," she says with a fond smile.

Is she… Is she flirting with him? For a moment, he doesn't have anything as a comeback and watches her pries the notebook from his fingers. Her eyes studies his notes and suddenly, Lelouch is conscious of his handwriting. Are his letters too blocky? Did he misspell something? What about his punctuations?

Like a patrol, her gaze roams up and down the page. He waits with bated breath for her judgment but nothing came. Instead, she snatches his pen and begins writing fast on his notebook.

"What are you doing?" he hisses.

"I'm finishing answering your questions."

"Why?"

She looks up. "I realize that my answers didn't meet your standard so I thought, if I answer them all, then it will be easy for you to know what you like and don't like about your date. My answers will be your guide on what you _don't _like."

"It's not that I don't like your answers," he mutters, embarrassed. His cheeks reddening like tomatoes. "We just see things differently."

"Don't worry, I'm not offended… Wait, are you really going to make her choose between the color blue and red?"

"That one is a psychological question."

"All of these are psychological questions," she mumbles with her eyes on his notebook.

Without anything else to do, Lelouch retrieves his phone and finds that there is still no response from his sister. It's been an hour of waiting! Does his date even plan to show up? Imagine what he can do with this wasted hour! Planning for his lessons, researching, staying in the library or… or… he glances up and sees the green head bobbing before him… or yes, he could have napped for an hour. He can definitely use an hour of rest before busying himself with academic stuff, because he can actually do those things some other time. And what he wants now is a long peaceful, uninterrupted rest. Now look who is procrastinating.

"Here." He takes the closed notebook from the waitress who is already standing before him. "I hope my assistance is enough. I have to go back to work. I'll just be around if you need anything."

Lelouch nods and mutters a soft 'Thank You' before watching her leave. When she is out of sight, he opens the notebook and reads her answers. To say that he is surprised of what he saw is an understatement.

The page is full of drawings of pizza slices. No corner was left untouched as pizza of different sizes rains in his paper. Her swirly handwriting completely contrasted his pointed one and at some point, she overwrote his words. She changed the question, 'What kind of seminars you like to attend?' into 'What party themes appeal to you?' There's one question that she totally erased and underneath it she wrote, 'If you will turn into a flower, what will you be and why?' As if he knows anything about flowers.

She answered 'pajamas' when asked what she preferred between formal and smart casual wear.

A shape on the right bottom corner of the page catches his attention. Curious, he studies the image before him but for the sake of all the good in this world, he cannot fathom what she drew. It looks like an octopus or a squid. Something with a rounded-head, two closed eyes and smiling lips. Oddly, it has a little black hat on the side of its head making it look like a gentleman… or rather a gentlesquid. He shakes his head at the silliness of his thought. Below the undistinguishable image are the words: "Cheese-kun at your service!"

Oh, so this is Cheese-kun.

Who the hell is Cheese-Kun?

The loud ringtone of his phone disturbs his puzzlement and oh, at last, Nunnally is calling! Quickly, he answers the call and is immediately bombarded with apologies as his sister relays that his date won't be able to come because an accident happened on her way to the resto, no, no, she's not the one involved, but since she's a med student, she helped in applying first aid until the ambulances arrived which took several minutes. Lelouch assures Nunnally that it is okay. Actually, her friend is commendable, but he wished that she had told him much earlier.

Another round of apologies came from Nunnally's side. Sorry for making him wait. Sorry for not informing him immediately. Sorry for wasting his time.

Lelouch was about to assure her again when he reads the last words on his note.

_These questions are cool, but you need to open your eyes to other perspectives and take risks. Compatibility is not just about similarities, sometimes, you find happiness in the most unexpected ways._

"My time isn't wasted," he tells Nunnally as his eyes search the room.

"But you waited for an hour," his sister cries remorsefully on the other line.

"Someone accompanied me."

"Who? Oh, is it a girl?"

He finally catches a glimpse of green by the counter. He smiles. "It's a secret."

"It's a girl! Who is she, Lelouch? When are we going to meet her?"

But he is already walking towards the counter, his sister's excited voice falls in the background until he mindlessly says goodbye and he is now standing beside _her_.

"Tomorrow, three in the afternoon, Pizza Hut."

"I have work tomorrow," Miss C.C. says as she punches the order in the computer.

Lelouch rests his arms on the counter and leans forward. "How about the day after tomorrow?"

"Work." She turns around and speaks to the cooks. "I have two sushi, three Californian maki, two tonkotsu ramen, and two lemon iced teas." Then, she turns to Lelouch who is already hopeless and embarrassed. She raises an eyebrow. "How about Saturday, four in the afternoon, Pizza Hut?"

Lelouch perks up, his eyes brightening. "That will do."

"It's a date, then."

"Yes, it is. I'll see you on Saturday." He had already turned around and almost at the door when all of a sudden, the waitress calls to him.

"Oh, and mister…"

"Lelouch, my name is Lelouch."

"Oh, and Lelouch?" she says with a sly smile on her face.

He tilts his head and waits. "Yes, C.C.?"

"You didn't order anything."


End file.
